The Whiskey Boom

Georgetown pub honors Irish presidents and global whiskeys

Although its family of painstakingly renovated restaurants technically fit the definition of a chain, each Rí Rá property is custom-tailored to the community the lively pub is to serve.

Which is why when it came time for the cross-Atlantic crew to flesh out the sprawling, two-level space they’d carved out for themselves in Georgetown (3125 M St. NW), two things immediately came to mind: whiskey and politics.

The core restaurant had its debut earlier this winter. But the newly christened Whiskey Room just opened to the public Jan. 24.

The gorgeously appointed and generously stocked lounge is, in fact, sibling to a pre-existing whiskey room concept developed at the Burlington, Vt., location. But D.C. did get a little something extra: the aptly named Presidential Room.

The semiprivate space is divided into two rooms tucked away at the far rear of the ornate upstairs bar. The first section features splashy portraits of past and present commanders in chief rendered in a Warholian fashion.

Regional manager Andy Christie said the portraits were inspired by the prominent bust of JFK in the inner sanctum of the politically themed den — a conversation piece Rí Rá co-founder Ciaran Sheehan became obsessed with during a trip to Las Vegas. Per Christie, Sheehan saw the massive head-and-shoulders piece while browsing in an antique store and immediately made it his mission to secure the ’60s homage for the restaurant.

According to Christie, the funky portraiture pays tribute to any president with credible ties to the Emerald Isle. Information about presidents of Irish-American descent varies wildly; some online outlets boast that as many as half of the American presidents to date could claim Irish roots, while others maintain that the fraternity of those with true Hibernian ancestry numbers less than a dozen.

What is not in contention are the quantity and quality of whiskeys (and whiskey knowledge) Christie has installed behind the bar.

Learning Together

The Whiskey Room is overseen by Scotch maven Rachael Ewing, who became entranced with brown spirits while attending the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, and Dublin native James Costigan, the bar’s resident Irish whiskey guru.

Ewing, who spent the past year at the whiskey-loving Jack Rose Dining Saloon, said she looked forward to helping Rí Rá build on its expansive, but highly selective, carte — 251 scotches, Irish whiskeys and bourbons (and counting).

“We don’t just want to have a large collection. We want to have a focused collection,” she asserted.

Some of the rarities they’ve procured so far include a 34-year-old scotch from the now-defunct Port Ellen distillery, as well as an Irish whiskey created by Knappogue in 1951, which subsequently spent nearly four decades soaking in sherry casks and was bottled in 1987.

The duo is hoping to stir up interest in whiskey appreciation via an evolving roster of thematic tasting duels. Currently the 10 head-to-head matchups are: